A pregnant Kentucky woman who wants an abortion is suing to overturn the state’s pro-life laws, which protect nearly all preborn children from death by induced abortion.
The plaintiff, who goes by the pseudonym Mary Poe, said in her lawsuit that “ending my pregnancy is the best decision for me and my family.” She is being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Poe is reportedly around seven weeks pregnant and says she will suffer “severe harm” if she cannot kill her preborn child.
“I feel overwhelmed and frustrated that I cannot access abortion care here in my own state, and I have started the difficult process of arranging to get care in another state where it’s legal,” Poe said. “This involves trying to take time off work and securing child care, all of which place an enormous burden on me. This is my personal decision, a decision I believe should be mine alone, not one made by anyone else.”
To be clear, the “care” Poe is seeking involves the direct and intentional taking of an innocent human life. Abortion ends the child’s life through starvation, dismemberment, or poison. There is no legitimate personal right which trumps the right to life for the preborn child, regardless of whether a state chooses to label killing an innocent human being as someone else’s “right.”
Pro-life laws which protect preborn children are not in place to take away anyone’s freedom to make personal decision — they are in place to protect that right to life, just as laws prohibiting homicide protect the right to life.
In the lawsuit, the ACLU is leaning on the state’s 2022 vote rejecting Amendment 2, which would have stated that there is no “right to abortion,” directly in the state’s constitution. In a statement to the Kentucky Lantern, Amber Duke, executive director for the ACLU of Kentucky, said the amendment’s failure showed “Kentuckians support access to abortion care without government interference.”
“While that victory at the ballot box kept an abortion ban out of the state Constitution, this lawsuit, brought by a person actively seeking care, is the next step in overturning the bans currently in place,” Duke said. “We hope for an ultimate victory that aligns with the will of the people and overturns these unconstitutional bans.”
Attorney General Russell Coleman, who is one of the defendants named in the lawsuit, said he will fight to defend the state’s law.
“It’s the Attorney General’s responsibility to defend the laws passed by the General Assembly, and we will zealously work to uphold these laws in court,” Coleman said.
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